ACLU settles gun advocate's First Amendment suit

The American Civil Liberties Union has reached a settlement in a free-speech lawsuit involving a gun rights advocate and a sheriff's department officer.

The suit was filed in February on behalf of Jordan Klaffer against Capt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff's Department, and the U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau dismissed the First Amendment case Wednesday, said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri.

But D. Keith Henson, Bledsoe's lawyer, said in an emailed statement the resolution comes without admitting any liability.

Under the agreement, Bledsoe has sent a written apology to Klaffer, agreed to pay damages, court costs and attorney's fees. The village of Kelso, Missouri, also has assured Klaffer in writing it will instruct police officers not to seek court orders censoring people critical of their actions, said Diane Balogh, spokeswoman for the ACLU of Missouri.

Rothert declined to disclose the amount paid in the settlement.

Henson said in an email neither letter admits wrongdoing by Bledsoe or Kelso and confirms that the law will be followed.

The settlement, he wrote, does not mean people are free to post material on the Internet that violates the law or anyone's rights. "In appropriate cases, individuals in Missouri are protected from harassment and stalking by Internet posts that violate the Missouri Adult Abuse Act, the law, and the U.S. Constitution," Henson wrote.

Klaffer, of Cape Girardeau, is a gun rights advocate who frequently fires his weapons at objects on private property. On May 1, 2013, Bledsoe, who also is chief of the Kelso Police Department, confronted Klaffer at his mother's home in response to a noise complaint, court documents show. Bledsoe told Klaffer to surrender his guns or be placed under arrest, which he was.

In Klaffer's view, Bledsoe was harassing him for exercising his Second Amendment rights, according to court documents. Klaffer posted recordings of the encounter and "strong criticisms" of Bledsoe's actions online.

Bledsoe filed for an order of protection in May to bar Klaffer from posting videos, pictures and critical texts, court documents show.

The videos were removed. Klaffer pleaded guilty to a peace disturbance charge June 24 and was fined $125.

Meanwhile, the ACLU lawsuit was settled before Bledsoe or his attorney responded or entered an appearance, Rothert said.

"We are very happy with how this case has resolved," Rothert said. "One important thing to our client, and to us, was that something like this not happen again. ... We were given written assurance by the [village] of Kelso and an apology from officer Bledsoe, which gives us strong confidence this won't happen again."

Rothert said the lawsuit wasn't about whether the original encounter between Bledsoe and Klaffer was right or wrong, good or bad.

" ... People have the right to record police officers performing their duties in public and post those recordings to the Internet, and that's what this case was about," Rothert said. "If a police officer is doing nothing wrong, they'd have nothing to fear from being recorded and having that recording posted."

To Bledsoe's credit, Rothert said, he has apologized and taken responsibility for a mistake that was a Constitutional violation.

"The disadvantage of settling is we don't know how or why things happened. We don't know how this played out, or why it came out" the way it did, Rothert said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

Kelso, Mo.